High School: Local teams unite for Operation Hat Trick

DOVER — High school baseball, softball and lacrosse teams have spent the entire spring trying to beat each other on the playing field. Next week, they'll be united for a special cause off it.

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By John Doyle

seacoastonline.com

By John Doyle

Posted May. 10, 2014 at 2:00 AM

By John Doyle
Posted May. 10, 2014 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

DOVER — High school baseball, softball and lacrosse teams have spent the entire spring trying to beat each other on the playing field. Next week, they'll be united for a special cause off it.

The Operation Hat Trick program, a wildly successful endeavour founded at the University of New Hampshire to deliver hats to wounded service members, is now in the high school ranks. The Operation Hat Trick N.H. High School initiative will involve 61 high schools from across the state.

"It's an opportunity for our kids to learn and recognize things outside their normal environment," said Portsmouth High School boys lacrosse coach Chad Vischer. "So many of our kids live in a bubble. It's good for them to realize that doesn't come for free. People are doing things to protect them. It's an honor to recognize the troops and what the veterans have done for us."

Next week, all participating schools will wear Operation Hat Trick camouflage hats with their school logo for all baseball and softball games to raise money and awareness for wounded veterans. Participating schools will outfit their teams through sales of Operation Hat Trick hats to school and community members. All monies raised will go directly to New Hampshire wounded veterans.

Vischer said the Portsmouth and St. Thomas Aquinas lacrosse teams will wear the hats before and after their game against each other on May 16, and St. Thomas coach Barry Katz has designed T-shirts for both teams to wear during warmups and under their jerseys during the game. In addition, there will be a pre-game ceremony including an honorary coin flip by a local veteran. Both teams will also pose for a photo together before the game.

"It's great for the lacrosse community that the two teams are coming together," Vischer said. "What Barry put together was awesome. A lot of these kids grew up together. They've been playing lacrosse together their whole lives and maybe they'll end up playong lacrosse together in the future."

Operation Hat Trick is dedicated to the memory of Nate Hardy, a former standout soccer player at Oyster River High School and chief petty officer in the Navy, who was killed in battle in Iraq in 2008 while trying to pull a fellow soldier to safety. Hardy was 29 at the time of his death.

Operation Hat trick was founded in 2010 by UNH Senior Associate Athletics Director Dot Sheehan. It is projected that close to $70,000 will be donated to Operation Hat Trick for use in supporting awareness and recovery programs for veterans in the state.

The organization's mission is to generate awareness, support and funding for the recovery of America's service members, both active and veterans.